Trail Running, Italian-Style

Gasping for air at the SkyGames

They seemed to be calling me "Benny" and telling me to "die" as I power-hiked a 1,000m vertical climb in less than 2.5K of rocky, damp trail in the Dolomites. The Vertical Kilometer was the first of four stages in the three-day SkyGames, the "high-altitude Olympics," held last summer in Canazei, Italy. Even though German is spoken more than Italian in these mountain villages close to the Austrian border of Italy's Trentino region, race supporters yelled at us in Italian, using the expressions, "va bene" and "dai," meaning "go well" and "let's go."

The 35-degree incline and jet lag were enough to give two other Italian expressions – in bocca al lupo and in culo alla balena – more distorted meanings than their already odd literal translations of "in the wolf's mouth" and "in the butt of a whale," respectively, which are common Italian versions of good luck wishes, like "break a leg." The bystanders used them for their figurative motivational encouragement but I hardly heard them over my muttering to myself. "Why would someone set a course up this constant steep grade? This isn't running!"

All I wanted to do was look around as my nose practically scraped the ground in front of me. Beautiful mountain landscapes surrounded me, but my mind was numb, lungs seared, and eyes focused on the next foot placement for fear of rolling back for what would have been a long and painful fall.

The ISF is born

Despite that inauspicious welcome, it was my buona fortuna to attend the SkyGames as the president of the American Trail Running Association (ATRA). As a member of the Federation for Sport at Altitude (FSA), ATRA has a voting interest in the first plenary assembly of the International Skyrunning Federation (ISF), a non-governmental, non-profit international association charged with directing, regulating, promoting, and developing the sport of skyrunning and similar multisport disciplines on a global basis.

Originally spawned by Marino Giacometti and Lauri van Houten in 1995, the founders of FSA were ready for their baby to grow up and graduate to become the ISF. There are now more than 60 Skyraces, defined as "running in the mountains above 2,000m altitude where the climbing difficulty does not exceed 11 degrees and the incline does not exceed 40 percent." Ski poles and hands are permitted to aid progress, and many of the 20,000 participants use them.

We held the FSA meetings in Canazei on the second day of the SkyGames. Nine "unit members" attended, mostly from European nations, several "associate members," and technical commission members from the international mountaineering organization, plus a physician who specializes in high-altitude performance studies.

The meeting included introductory remarks from Silvio Calvi, a member of the UIAA (International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation) working group, during which he encouraged the various delegates to "please take with you when you go to run in the mountains those who cannot come because they are too old or unwell, as they will help to push you to the top." Representatives from mountain running federations from Catalonia, the Basque Country and Valencia passionately asserted that they should be separate from Spain and have their own vote. However, because ISF has the goal of trying to elevate skyrunning to an Olympic sport, their statutes must conform to the IOC charter, thus Spain could receive only one vote. After clearing that hurdle, FSA was dissolved, and ISF and its preliminary statutes approved.

The ISF meeting was the easy part of the day. That morning began with the SkyBike, a 16K uphill mountain bike duathlon, most of which was steep. At the start, we rode our bikes from the village center up some bike paths to cobblestone, to dirt, to rock, to a hike-a-bike section, to a patch where we had to carry our bikes up rocky steps, until we finally reached a mountain dam at the base of a ski area. We then racked our bikes, put on our running shoes and ascended the scree slopes of the ski area to a rocky summit finish line.

And if that wasn't enough, the afternoon event – which I missed to attend the ISF meeting – was the SkySpeed, a vertical 100m "run" up a 45 percent incline on a grassy slope. This spelled one thing for the racers: lactic acid.

Let Them Run

On the third and final day of the SkyGames was the 22K Dolomites SkyRace, which ascended the stunning peaks above Canazei with more than 6,000 feet of climbing, before descending to the finish back in the village square. Word of warning: They don't believe in running switchbacks in Europe. This course went straight up and straight back, leaving many runners with aching quads the next several days.

And yet it was the running down part that was so glorious. After two days of ascending only, it was pure pleasure to let it go and fly down the rock-slide-strewn slopes of the mountains, bombing the straightest of lines that were somewhat navigable. I'd had my tail feathers handed to me the first two days, and it was such a joy to finally pass some of the European mountain goats who had schooled me on the ascent.

Yeah, baby, I'll show you the wolf's mouth and the whale's butt!

Skyrunning in the U.S.

The 2009 ISF Skyrunning calendar will include the Aug. 16 Pikes Peak Marathon in Manitou Springs, Colo., and will also feature the Skyrunning World Series, which will rank runners based on their best performances in at least three of the races held in Scotland, Malaysia, Spain, Andorra, and Italy, and one of the races held in the U.S., Japan, Mexico , Spain, Switzerland, France, Portugal, and Italy. For information on the 2009 series and SkyGames, go to fsa-sky.org or skygames.org.